SACRIFICE: Metal Injection Premieres âMissileâ Lyric Video; Canadian Thrash Metal Veterans To Release Crushing Sixth Album, Volume Six, February 21st On Cursed Blessings Records

photos by Kelly Clark Fotography

âOne of Canada’s Big Four of thrash, here to kick ass.â â Metal Injection

Metal Injection is hosting the exclusive premiere of âMissile,â the shredding new single from long-running Canadian thrash metal veterans, SACRIFICE, found on the bandâs first new album in over sixteen years. Volume Six.

The sixth SACRIFICE album overall, and second since the bandâs reformation in 2006, Volume Six features ten new originals and a cover paying homage to the Toronto scene from which they originally emerged. Working once again with engineer Darius Szczepaniak â who was also at the helm for SACRIFICEâs 2009 effort The Ones I Condemn â Volume Six was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Phase One Studios in Scarborough, Ontario. Tracked over a period of sessions between September 2023 and May 2024, the eleven-song offering was produced by vocalist/guitarist Rob Urbinati and features the bandâs original lineup, with lead guitarist Joe Rico, bassist Scott Watts, and drummer Gus Pynn as well as Urbinati. They are one of, if not the only, 1980s thrash band that still has its original lineup intact and playing together, and on Volume Six, the band hits it out of the park.

The songs on Volume Six run the gamut from speedy, breakneck thrash (âComatose,â âExplode,â âWe Will Not Surviveâ) to more nuanced, layered, metallic compositions (âUnderneath Millenia,â âYour Hunger For Warâ). Two instrumental tracks on the album show yet another side of the bandâs songwriting while still clearly being SACRIFICE songs: âLunar Eclipseâ is a showcase for Rico and Urbinatiâs excellent twin guitar leads, while âBlack Hashishâ is SACRIFICE at their most psychedelic. The albumâs final track, âTrapped In A World,â is a cover of â80s Toronto hardcore band Direct Action, a group that had a massive influence on the members of SACRIFICE during their formative years. The song features guest vocals by Youth Youth Youth vocalist and Toronto music legend Brian Taylor, who operated the Diabolic Force label in the eighties and produced the bandâs first three albums, bringing everything full-circle three decades later with his appearance here.

The stunning front cover artwork for Volume Six was painted by Propagandhi bassist and lifelong SACRIFICE fan Todd Kowalski. There is a mutual admiration between both bands: Propagandhiâs song âThe Bangers Embrace,â off their 2009 album Supporting Caste, is a love letter to SACRIFICE about seeing them play live back in 1990. The bands have shared stages over the years and released a split single of covers â SACRIFICE transforms Rushâs âAnthemâ into a thrash classic while Propagandhi does a Corrosion Of Conformity song â via the War On Music label in 2010. When Urbinati asked Kowalski about painting the cover he gave him the lyrics and the music and asked him to interpret it visually as he envisioned it.

The new âMissileâ single is delivered through a lyric video, with Urbinati writing of the song, ââMissileâ is a thrashing, anti-war, riff-fest written about the beginning of drone warfare where pilots were a half world away launching missile strikes like a video game. War solves nothing.â

Metal Injection writes, âWe’re thrilled to stream Sacrifice’s unrelenting new single âMissileâ below, whose overall energy may allow you to forgo all coffee this morning.â

Watch the lyric video for SACRIFICEâs incinerating âMissileâ first at Metal Injection RIGHT HERE.

Volume Six will drop in North America on February 21st, digitally and on CD, MC, and LP in Blue, White, and Black variants. Find preorders at the Cursed Blessings Records webshop HERE, and watch the âAntidote Of Poisonâ lyric video HERE. The record is available through High Roller Records in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

SACRIFICE originally formed in 1983 in Scarborough, Ontario, a suburb in the east end of Toronto. Taking influence from both the underground metal and punk scenes of the day, the then-teenagers released their debut album Torment In Fire in 1986 and established themselves as a band to watch. It was followed up by 1987âs Forward To Termination, featuring the video single âRe-animation,â which ended up in regular rotation on Canadaâs Much Music video station the following year and even became the theme song for the channelâs long running metal music video show, the Pepsi Power Hour. Original Sepultura frontman Max Cavelera recently revealed Forward To Termination to be one of his three favorite thrash metal albums of all time. Their third effort, 1990âs Soldiers Of Misfortune, has been praised as one of the most important Canadian albums ever, making NOW Torontoâs 50 Best Toronto Albums Ever list.

SACRIFICE played a prominent role in the 1980s underground metal scene in Toronto, and along with Voivod, Razor, and Annihilator, is considered one of the “Big 4” of Canadian thrash metal. The band released four studio albums on Diabolic Force in Canada, Metal Blade Records in the US, and Roadrunner Records in Europe before parting ways in 1993. After coming back together to play a reunion concert in 2006, the quartet released their fifth studio album, The Ones I Condemn, in 2009. Since reforming, SACRIFICE has played major international festivals, including Belgiumâs Alcatraz Festival, Germany’s Keep it True, Peruâs Ai-apaec, Maryland Deathfest and California Deathfest in the United States, and both the 2012 and 2018 editions of Japanâs True Thrash Festival, amongst others.